Organizational Commitment To Change

2.2.1. Readiness for change

Jones, Jimmieson, & Griffiths (2005: 362) define readiness for change as “the extent to which employees hold positive views about the need for organizational change (i.e. change acceptance), as well as the extent to which employees believe that such changes are likely to have positive implications for themselves and the wider organization”. They try to make sense out of their situation, by seeking and interpreting information during the ongoing events and behaving according to their interpretation (Ford et al., 2008). This behaviour is what defines the readiness of each individual for organizational change and impacts the employee’s capability to adjust to the change, by affecting his or her “job satisfaction, work

Commitment to change

Organizational commitment is a construct that has gotten a lot of attention throughout the history of organizational research, but lacked to describe the support of and commitment to change, as it was focussed more generally on the employee’s support of different targets (Meyer & Herscovitch, 2001). In order to do justice to different forms of workplace commitment, Herscovitch and Meyer (2002) defined commitment to change as “a force (mind-set) that binds an individual to a course of action deemed necessary for the successful implementation of a change initiative” (p.475).

Following the work of Meyer and Allen (1991), they differentiated between three forms of commitment to change, namely affective, continuance and normative commitment, and adapted them to the scenario of organizational change. Affective commitment describes the employee’s desire to support the change, as he or she believes that this benefits him or her. Employees also acknowledge the fact that there is a price to pay, for example leaving the organization, when they fail to support the change, which is seen as continuance commitment. Finally, normative commitment results from normative pressures and leads to the feeling of obligation to support change. It has also been shown that these three forms are distinguishable from each other, with affective commitment being the strongest related to positive outcomes, such as increased attendance and performance, as well as less stress and

However, in the research of the Big Five personality factors, openness to experience is one important part of the model and stands for “creativity, unconventionality and broad-mindedness” (Barrick, Mount, & Judge; 2001). Applying this to the context of organizational change, Miller, Johnson and Grau (1994: 60) consider openness to be a “necessary, initial condition for successful planned change. Wanberg and Banas (2000: 135) state that openness is the “willingness to accommodate or accept the specific changes” and that it plays a critical role in influencing an employee’s readiness for change and therefore conclude that employees struggling to accept change show higher work irritation, are more likely to quit and are less satisfied with their